Envelope fastener and method of making and applying the same



A. NOVICK Sept. 8, 1936.

ENVELOPE FASTENER AND METHOD OF MAKING AND APPLYING THE SAME 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 15, 1935 INVENTOR Abra/7am Nov/ck.

A TTORNEYS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 8, 1936. A. NOVICK ENVELOPE FASTENER AND METHOD OF MAKING AND APPLYING THE SAME Filed June 15, 1933 o 22 BY Patented Sept. 8, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ENVELOPE FASTENER AND METHOD OF MAKING AND APPLYING THE SAME Application June 15, 1933, Serial No. 675,872

6 Claims.

This invention relatesto envelope fasteners of the type adapted to be clinched to the back of an envelope and provided with oppositely extending bendable tongues which normally lie fiat against the back of the envelope but which may be bent outward into substantial parallelism, passed through an opening in the envelope flap, and then spread out flat again to secure the flap in a closed condition.

Fasteners of this kind are customarily formed and bundled by a fastener manufacturer and shipped as required to envelope manufacturers. The bundled fasteners are placed in stacked form in the magazine of a fastener forming and applying machine, and are separated individually from the stack. Each fastener as it is sepa+ rated is first operated upon to provide prongs whereby it may be attached to the envelope material and the prongs are thereafter driven! through the envelope material and clinched. Thiese pronged fasteners are satisfactory for many uses, but the prongs are rough and pointed and are, therefore, likely to catch and snag delicate fabrics placed in the envelope.

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate this drawback of the prior art fasteners.

To this end the fasteners are formed flat by the fastener manufacturer so that they may be stacked and are shipped in stacked form to the stacking the lobes of the fasteners have small circular openings punched in them to facilitate the formation of short, uniform-eyelet tubes upon the blanks as the blanks are withdrawn individually from the stack.

It is a feature of the invention that the fastener blanks are burred or deformed as an incident of the formation of the small circular openings, and that the blanks are all faced in the same direction in the stack, that is, with the burrs all turned in the same direction.

It is a further feature of the invention that the eyelet tube former is driven through the blank from the burred side thereof, it having been found that this mode of procedure conduces to the production of smooth, uniform, unbroken eyelet tubes. It is not clear'that the actual production of a burr is necessary, but it does appear that the driving of the tube former through the metal from the side opposite that at which the punch was driven through the metal is definitely connected with the production of the best results. Other objects and advantages will hereinafter appear.

envelope manufacturer as before, but prior to In the drawings forming part of this specification,

Figure l is a fragmentary view showing an envelope with a fastener embodying features of the present invention applied thereto;

Figure 2 is a plan view of the fastener blank of Figure 1 in the form in which the fastener blank is stacked and shipped;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 of an alternative form of fastener blank wherein the tongues are ribbed in order to stifien them;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary plan view of the inher face of the back of the envelope of Figure 1 on a larger scale than Figure 1;

Figure 5 is .a fragmentary, sectional view illustrating a fastener blank just prior to the formation of the eyelet tubes upon it;

Figure 6 is a view similar to Figure 5 illustrating the fastener blank just after the eyelet tubes are formed upon it;

Figure 7 shows the fastener after it has been fed away from the instrumentalities of Figure 6 and inverted;

Figure 8 is a fragmentary, sectional view illustrating the applying of the fastener to an envelope blank; and

Figure 9 is a fragmentary view in elevation, partly broken away, of a suitable mechanism for separating the blanks individually from a stack, forming eyelet tubes upon each separated blank, and thereafter feeding the blank into predetermined relation to an envelope blank and fastening it to the envelope blank. This machine is the same as the machine illustrated in Letters Patent of the United States #1,651,834, granted to me on December 6, 19-27 for Envelope fastener attaching machine, ,with the exception that modifications have been made to adapt the machine for forming eyelet tubes and for setting and clinching fasteners having eyelet tubes formed upon them.

In Figure l disclosure is made of an envelope I having a fastener 2 attached to the back 3 thereof. The closure fiap l of the envelope is provided with a reinforcing piece 5. The flap t and the reinforcing pieee 5 have a hole 6 punched through them so that when the flap i is turned over against the back of the envelope tongues l forming part of the fastener 2 may be passed through the hole 8 and then spread to retain the flap in envelope closing position. The fastener 2 also includes a central body portion 8 and lobes Q which extend at opposite sides of the body portion.

Each lobe at the time when the fastener is associated with and attached to the envelope back 3 is provided with a short uniform eyelet tube it which is driven through the envelope back and then upset to form a smooth unbroken clinching flange ll. It is said that the flange ii is unbroken, and ordinarily this is true. Under some circumstances, however, the flanges il will occasionally be broken slightly but in no instance will a the breaks be of such magnitude as to expose rough edges which might catch and snag delicate fabrics such, for example, as the fabrics of silk stockings.

In securing the result stated it is a feature that each lobe 9 has punched centrally therein a substantially circular opening l2. This causes the lobe material to be slightly curred or at least slightly deformed around the opening l2. When the fastener is subsequently associated with the mechanism for forming the tubes it upon the lobes the burred side of the fastener is turned toward the tube former lb. The fastener is clamped at this time between a former guide Ml and an outside former 55 so that the inside tube former l3 enters the fastener material from the burred side to form the tube W. This results in the production of a short uniform tube.

Obviously it would not be feasible to stack any considerable number of the fasteners 2 after they have had the tubes it formed upon them. Ac-= cordingly the fastener blanks are manufactured into the form shown in Figure 2 and are then stacked with the burred sides all facing in the same direction As thus stacked the blanks are shipped to envelope manufacturers. Stacks it of the blanks are fed into the magazine ll of the machine of Figure 9.

This machine includes means for separating the blanks one by one from the bottom of the stack it. Each individualized blank is fed into position over the former guide M and the outside former 55 then comes down and clamps the blank. The inside formers it which are carried by block it are then driven upward through the blank to form the tubes ill upon it. The blank is then advanced into a magazine B9. In passing down along the magazine the blank becomes inverted and comes to rest beneath the drivers 20 and over an anvil H which extends into the envelope in position to support the back thereof. The drivers, which are hollow, descend upon the blank and drive the eyelet tubes through the material of the envelope back and around small knobs or bosses 22. surfaces provided at the bases of the bosses, to form the flanges ll. Each of the drivers 20 carries within it a yieldable, pointed chip holder 23. The pointed chip holder 28 enters a shallow, obtuse recess 24 formed in the top of the boss 22 and presses into the recess the chip fiii which has been punched from the envelope material by the eyelet tube. This causes the chip to become deformed so that it does not fill the bore of the driver 28 and hence does' not tend to stick in the bore.

I have described what I believe to be the best embodiments of my invention. I do not wish, however, to be confined to the embodiments shown, but what I desire to cover by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. As an article of manufacture and commerce, a prongless envelope fastener blank disposed substantially in a single plane and comprising a body portion, bendable tongues extending out- The tubes are turned outward by the anvil' aosa eo ward from the body portion and lobes extending outward from opposite sides of the body portion, each lobe being provided with a substantially circular opening to facilitate the formation of a short eyelet tube thereon, and with sufficient material surrounding said hole to permit upsetting eyelet flanges on both sides of the envelope material.

2. As an article of manufacture and commerce, a prongless envelope fastener blank disposed substantially in a single plane and comprising a body portion, bendable tongues extending outward from the body portion and lobes extending outward from opposite sides of the body portion, each lobe being provided with a substantially circular burred opening to facilitate the formation upon the lobes of short, substantially uniform eyelet tubes, and the burrs serving to facilitate registry of the holes in contiguous blanks when assembled in a stack for the eyeletforming operation.

3. As an article of manufacture and commerce, 2. prongless envelope fastener blank disposed substantially in a single plane and comprising a body portion, bendable tongues extending outward from the body portion, and a lobe extending outward from the body portion, and being provided with a substantially circular punched opening to facilitate the formation upon the lobe of a short, substantially uniform eyelet tube, at one side of the material, said lobe having suificient material surrounding the hole to permit the eventual crimping of an eyelet flange at the free end of the tube and a complemental flange at the base thereof.

4. As an article of manufacture and commerce, a stack of prongless envelope fastener blanks each blank being disposed substantially in a single plane and each comprising a body portion, bendable tongues extending outward from the body portion and lobes extending outward from the opposite sides of the body portion and each having a substantially circular, burred opening formed therein, the fastener blanks being all disposed with their burred sides lying in the same direction and the burred side of one blank being engaged retentively in registered position with the relatively smooth side of the contiguous blank.

5. The method of making and applying prongless envelope fasteners, which comprises providin a stack of flat fasteners, each having a plurality of small spaced holes formed therein, separating the fasteners individually from the stack, forming eyelet tubes upon each individualized fastener around the holes therein, feeding each fastener-into predetermined relation to an envelope, driving the eyelet tubes through the envelope material, and upsetting the eyelet tubes.

6. In the method of providing envelope blanks with prongless fasteners each embodying an eyelet and tongues, which method includes the steps of punching fastener blanks of sheet metal, stacking the blanks. preforming integral tubular eyelet parts therein. and completing the eyelets in setting operations, the novel step which consists in crimping complemental eyelet flanges at opposite ends of said tubular parts into embracing contact with the envelope blank, the flange at one end being completely circular, and the flange at the other end being annular in form and extending around substantially 300 of a circle.

ABRAHAM NOVICK. 

